As much as we’ve loved Bush in the past, the new album, “Black and White Rainbows” doesn’t approach the standard they’ve set before. It’s just not very good. The album isn’t produced with any kind of flare or flavor, it sounds generic. Frontman Gavin Rossdale’s lyrics and vocal don’t land like they have on previous efforts, and the songs just don’t resonate as well as previous work has. For Bush fans, they’ll like it okay, but it’s not going to find its way to the top tier of favorites for them either.

The first complaint about Black and White Rainbows is that the guitars have no punch, like at all. The entire genre of mainstream rock is struggling with this right now. The way guitars are recorded in the genre sounds and feels soulless and that’s the case with Bush here. Everything tries to be too perfect and there’s absolutely no attitude to them at all. The guitars aren’t great and part of that is because the songs aren’t that great either. The melodies written don’t work half the time and the other time sound entirely too poppy. Save for two or three songs most of these are forgettable.

Now, although the songs and the production aren’t great. There’s one saving grace to this album and it’s Rossdale. Even if the songs aren’t great here, his voice is still unmistakable and it’s still great. In the past, I’ve listened to Bush just to listen to Rossdale’s voice and I think that’s one of the only reasons to listen through this album. It’s just too bad he didn’t find songs that resonated more than these ones do.
Bush’s “Black and White Rainbows” is disappointing. The good with it is that they’ll tour alongside of it. The bad with it is if they play more than two of the new songs on the tour. If you love the genre then it’s hard not to be a fan of the band. However, it’s hard to be a fan of this album.

As much as we’ve loved Bush in the past, the new album, “Black and White Rainbows” doesn’t approach the standard they’ve set before. It’s just not very good. The album isn’t produced with any kind of flare or flavor, it sounds generic. Frontman Gavin Rossdale’s lyrics and vocal don’t land like they have on previous efforts, and the songs just don’t resonate as well as previous work has. For Bush fans, they’ll like it okay, but it’s not going to find its way to the top tier of favorites for them either.

The first complaint about Black and White Rainbows is that the guitars have no punch, like at all. The entire genre of mainstream rock is struggling with this right now. The way guitars are recorded in the genre sounds and feels soulless and that’s the case with Bush here. Everything tries to be too perfect and there’s absolutely no attitude to them at all. The guitars aren’t great and part of that is because the songs aren’t that great either. The melodies written don’t work half the time and the other time sound entirely too poppy. Save for two or three songs most of these are forgettable.

Now, although the songs and the production aren’t great. There’s one saving grace to this album and it’s Rossdale. Even if the songs aren’t great here, his voice is still unmistakable and it’s still great. In the past, I’ve listened to Bush just to listen to Rossdale’s voice and I think that’s one of the only reasons to listen through this album. It’s just too bad he didn’t find songs that resonated more than these ones do.
Bush’s “Black and White Rainbows” is disappointing. The good with it is that they’ll tour alongside of it. The bad with it is if they play more than two of the new songs on the tour. If you love the genre then it’s hard not to be a fan of the band. However, it’s hard to be a fan of this album.